Sheffield Wednesday 3-0 Arsenal

Hosts fly out of the blocks

It’s official. Owls really do wake up on a night. Roared on by a capacity crowd at Hillsborough, high-flying Championship side Sheffield Wednesday started as they meant to go on.

Pinging the ball about with zip and precision, they were playing Arsenal at their own game. It was a theme that continued throughout, while the Gunners fired blanks.

True to form for this competition, Arsene Wenger used the occasion to field youngsters Alex Iwobi and Glen Kamara, while Ismael Bennacer and Krystian Bielik were later introduced.

The tone for the match was set after five minutes when Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain came off due to a hamstring tweak to be replaced by Theo Walcott, though his night was over after two minutes with Bennacer playing his part in what was beginning to resemble a game of musical chairs.

Wednesday take full advantage

Capitalising on their guests’ misfortunes, it was the hosts, however who did go onto make music, establishing a metronomic rhythm, which saw Barry Bannan release left back Daniel Pudil, who from the by-line pulled back for the onrushing Ross Wallace who buried it in the bottom corner.

With Arsenal clearly stunned, they capitulated again not long after. A seemingly harmless delivery saw frontman Lucas Jaoa lose the sluggish Calum Chambers in the area, to meet the ball with a bullet header to double his side’s advantage.

In-form Olivier Giroud seemed by contrast to last time out uninterested by proceedings on a cold midweek evening in South Yorkshire and was nowhere to be seen when Joel Campbell sent a lofted through ball over the top just before the interval, summing up Arsenal’s half.

Bad to worse for Arsenal

Seven minutes after the restart, Wednesday who, again came flying out of the blocks made it three. A well worked set piece saw Sam Hutchinson bundle in from close range to send home fans into raptures.

It was testament to the work rate and industry of the home side to starve their visitors of the ball, applying the same steel synonymous with the city’s nickname.

A Per Mertesacker header after great work from Mathieu Flamini was comfortably saved by Joe Wildsmith and this epitomised Arsenal’s evening on a night where nothing seemed to go right. Perhaps Wednesday should play on Tuesday’s more often.